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Patrick (?) posted something on this a few months back and it totally shifted my opinion of the question. This part of the interview is a gift. It is an allotment of time to "sell" yourself.

I created an outline and shifted my emphasis according to the company I was interviewing with. This may only be useful out of undergrad, but take a look and see if it to helps you:
- Home town
- School and why you chose it
- Campus involvement [had a really good talking point here that usually started a short dialogue, giving me a break from being the only one talking]
- Internships and what you learned from them
- How those shaped my desire to work in [whatever I was interviewing for]
- Conclusion along the lines of "...and as a result of all that stuff I just said I am certain that this is the perfect job for me. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me today; I'm open to any other questions you have about my background and experience."

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Fear is the greatest motivator. Motivation is what it takes to find profit.

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Its a 'do'. Aslo tell them them you enjoy s&m. The whole interview is actually about your sexual orientation and they want to know you are creative in the bedroom because that makes for happier employees.

"Dont compromise yourself; you're all you've got" - Janis Joplin

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Its a 'do'. Aslo tell them them you enjoy s&m. The whole interview is actually about your sexual orientation and they want to know you are creative in the bedroom because that makes for happier employees.

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i was plannin to be all slick and quote that part when the character called deaf breaks his glasses and starts rambling some philosophical line in french, but i cant find the quote damnit. my googling skills need work :(

“The new day brings new hope. The lives we’ve led, the lives we’ve yet to lead. A new day. New ideas. A new you.”

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This question always drives me nuts cuz playing mysterious is my first priority. and I feel rehearsing my life stories such a pain in the ass.

--Money can't buy happiness. it can only buy orgasms.
--Who the hell says I want happiness? Orgasms all I need.

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Patrick (?) posted something on this a few months back and it totally shifted my opinion of the question. This part of the interview is a gift. It is an allotment of time to "sell" yourself.

I created an outline and shifted my emphasis according to the company I was interviewing with. This may only be useful out of undergrad, but take a look and see if it to helps you:
- Home town
- School and why you chose it
- Campus involvement [had a really good talking point here that usually started a short dialogue, giving me a break from being the only one talking]
- Internships and what you learned from them
- How those shaped my desire to work in [whatever I was interviewing for]
- Conclusion along the lines of "...and as a result of all that stuff I just said I am certain that this is the perfect job for me. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me today; I'm open to any other questions you have about my background and experience."

Boom.

Agree with this. One thing I'll add is to keep it really concise. I think this is the part where you layout what you want the interviewer to pick at, so there's no need to go into a lot of detail right off the bat.

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-Tell your story, but get straight to the point about why they would want to hire you.
-Work your elevator pitch in.

DON'T:
-Ramble
-Talk about anything from before four years ago if you're an undergrad. (The period of professional relevancy gets longer as you get older; generally it's one year for every two past 22)

Example:

Hi, I'm IlliniProgrammer. I did my undergrad in CS at UIUC where I TA'd a graduate algorithms course. I worked for Lehman Brothers for a year; was working on the night of the bankruptcy, I spent four more years working in equity flow vol desk analytics, and now I'm a grad student in finance! I enjoy open water swimming, hang gliding, and motorcycle racing. (Pause here. Don't ramble.)

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part a) talk briefly about your background - things like where you're from, a quick run through of your career/education so far. Keep this quick, light-hearted

part b) talk about your career - and as you do that, keep the flow natural but pick topics that you believe are relevant to the job you're interviewing for. It should feel like you're talking about something that you did that you're passionate / proud / interested about but it should align with the job (for e.g. if it's a consulting fit, you'd subtly talk about challenging business situations, problem solving issues. client issues...). That way you're not rambling some nonsense no one cares about.

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I take this question as an opportunity to highlight my background to reflect how exactly I fit in the role (job duties and experience). Start with your most recent job experience and focus on the skills/talents that are needed in the job and mention by giving examples of how you have acquired those skills and completed exactly same tasks.

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Me: "In college, I majored in Economics, the 'science' of making choices in a constrained environment to help me figure out what motivates people. I minored in Philosophy to hone my art of bullshitting. Combining these two fields with my natural proclivities has allowed me to separate very large sums of money from untold quantities of people in my 14 year career on Wall Street. Knowing the ins and outs of several large product areas has given me the knowledge of where to best hide fees. This way, the client thinks they are getting a great deal while I am ripping their fucking face off. This has allowed me to garner repeat business from said targets giving me a recurring, high margin revenue base that is portable to your firm."

You may need to adjust based on your personal circumstances, but this works pretty well for me.

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Me: "In college, I majored in Economics, the 'science' of making choices in a constrained environment to help me figure out what motivates people. I minored in Philosophy to hone my art of bullshitting. Combining these two fields with my natural proclivities has allowed me to separate very large sums of money from untold quantities of people in my 14 year career on Wall Street. Knowing the ins and outs of several large product areas has given me the knowledge of where to best hide fees. This way, the client thinks they are getting a great deal while I am ripping their fucking face off. This has allowed me to garner repeat business from said targets giving me a recurring, high margin revenue base that is portable to your firm."

You may need to adjust based on your personal circumstances, but this works pretty well for me.

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Glad to help. As you know, I have a lot of experience in this field, so some of the noobs may need to adjust their pitch to express their desire to do these things, instead of being able to claim they have already done them. Either way, the layout should be helpful in future interviews.

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The Auto Show

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" A recession is when other people lose their job, a depression is when you lose your job. "

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